SANTA CRUZ — Poems were read and tears shed as the homeless, their friends and families on Tuesday honored the 47 from their ranks who died this year.

“I miss them and I love them and I’ve learned a lot from them,” said Stephen Nelson, 58, a formerly homeless man who now works night security at the Homeless Services Center on Coral Street. “In the midst of all our pain, we need each other.”

The annual service marked a decade of honoring the homeless dead of Santa Cruz County, and was accompanied by similar memorials in communities across the continent.

In Santa Cruz’s homeless center cafeteria, the names of 47 Santa Cruz county homeless residents who died this year were read, although organizers said there likely were more.

Still, 47 is the highest number of homeless deaths reported since the county began tracking the statistic in 1999.

“There’s a lot of homeless that’s hidden in our community,” said public health nurse Matt Nathanson, who keeps track of the homeless who die within the county. “One of the really striking things was how young people die.”

Of the 47 reported deaths, the average age this year was 51 — 27 years younger than the average age of death for most Americans, which is 78. Alcohol played a part in at least 29 of those deaths, according to county statistics.

Since 1999, more than 400 names have been read at the December event.

More than 60 people turned out for Tuesday’s ceremony, including members of the Santa Cruz City Council, center staff and members of the county’s homeless community.

“This is the first time in 10 years I haven’t known someone on the list,” said Joy Bright McCorkle, 69, of Santa Cruz. McCorkle said she was homeless for 20 years before the center’s Homeless Persons’ Health Project helped her find housing in 2000.

McCorkle said the center’s community gave her friends, family and the ability to write. She went on to read an essay about becoming homeless herself, titled “Under the River Street Bridge.”

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